


Rough, Delicate Things

by Sour_Idealist



Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: M/M, if you will not give me the dialogue option I will just write fanfic about it, narrowly avoiding serious miscommunications, shovel speeches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-28
Updated: 2017-06-28
Packaged: 2018-11-19 03:44:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11304996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sour_Idealist/pseuds/Sour_Idealist
Summary: “So,” Dorian said, arranging himself in careful disaffection on Bull’s pillow, “I had an interesting chat with our Herald the other day.”“Oh?” Bull murmured, carding his hand through Dorian’s hair. Dorian ought to swat him away, really, but his hair was probably a dreadful mess already, and it felt nice. He resisted purring like a cat, though he leaned his head into Bull’s hand."Yes. She seemed to think…”She seemed to think I could hurt you.





	Rough, Delicate Things

**Author's Note:**

> Relationships which are too non-focal to be in the tag field, but which are nonetheless relevant: Sera/f!Cadash, and past f!Cadash/Iron Bull. 
> 
> I'm not sure if this world state is actually possible, but it was the state which interested me, and so I wrote it.

“Dorian?” Cadash tapped on the bookshelf as if it were a door.

“You do seem interested in my opinions,” Dorian said, snapping his book shut with a smile. “What is it?”

“Walk with me?” she suggested, jerking her head at the door to the battlements.

“Certainly,” Dorian said, blinking, and fell into step behind her.

“So,” she said, once they were no longer in earshot of half the Inquisition. “I asked you about Bull, the other day.”

“Yes,” Dorian said slowly. “Is there an issue? I thought you were quite happy with Sera. Andraste knows why,” he added, and got himself smacked in the ribs for his troubles. “Ouch!”

“Don’t, Dorian,” she said. “She makes me laugh. Some days I wake up and don’t even recognize myself. Around her it’s not a problem. I know she drives you out of your mind, I’m not asking you to like her, but be nice about her.”

“Well then!” Dorian said, blinking. “For the record, I don’t find her objectionable. She’s an insufferable little goblin, of course, but she’s surely entertaining. And I’m certainly glad she makes you happy.”

“Well,” Cadash said, blinking, and fiddled with the hem of her frankly tragic tunic. “All right, then.”

“So what did you want to discuss, if you’ve found such marvelous bliss with our Sera?” he asked. “I know you and he had been involved, but I thought that was long over. If I’ve been stepping on any toes...”

“You aren’t,” she assured him quickly. “It was fun, and he’s a wonderful friend to have, but it was never really more than that. And then Sera and I started talking more, and I… well. This isn’t the point.”

“Then what is?” he asked, propping himself on a battlement. “Since I gather you didn’t bring me out here to talk about your love affair with a woman who sets herself on fire regularly.”

“Well, apparently _you_ set curtains on fire,” Cadash said, poking at him. “Don’t fall off the wall, I don’t want to clean it up.”

“Bull mentioned that, did he.” Dorian’s mouth twisted. “Bragging, I suppose.”

“I asked him,” Cadash said. “About the two of you, not whether you’d set curtains on fire. But yes, he was bragging about you. Is that such a bad thing?”

“Tasteless, perhaps.” Dorian shrugged, avoiding her gaze. She sighed.

“Look. Dorian. The thing is, I don’t feel good about how I ended things with him. He always said it was all on my terms, that it didn’t have to be any more serious than I wanted it to be, but I…” She sighs. “He never asked me for anything. But we were drinking one time, after the first time we killed a dragon, and he said a couple of things that made me wonder if he wanted more than I could give him.”

“The _first_ time we killed a dragon,” Dorian says, shaking his head. “I had a feeling the Inquisition was going to be educational, but I certainly wasn’t expecting to be so cavalier about such things. A little dragon-slaying here, an undead horde or two there…”

“All in a day’s work,” Cadash said. “Look, Dorian, this isn’t the point. I’m just saying, I talked to him, and it sounds to me like he’s pretty fond of you. What you two do isn’t really my business, but… be careful with him, okay? Do better by him than I did. I know you’re not as callous as you try to convince us you are.”

“Nonsense, I am a heartless menace,” Dorian said, drawing himself up. “I have broken hearts across Tevinter and I came south only to break some more of them. I feed on their tears, you know.”

“I’m sure,” she deadpanned. “I still pine for you, you know. I ache. I weep.”

“And it sustains me,” he said, laughing, but he couldn’t stop himself from glancing at the tavern roof, at Bull’s carved-out home.

\--

“So,” Dorian said, arranging himself in careful disaffection on Bull’s pillow, “I had an interesting chat with our Herald the other day.”

“Oh?” Bull murmured, carding his hand through Dorian’s hair. Dorian ought to swat him away, really, but his hair was probably a dreadful mess already, and it felt nice. He resisted purring like a cat, though he leaned his head into Bull’s hand.

“Yes. She seemed to think…” _She seemed to think I could hurt you._ “She seemed to think she’d bruised your feelings a bit,” Dorian said instead, tracing one hand along a scar. Bull stiffened.

“She did?” he asked, half sitting up. “Did I do something wrong?”

“Maker take you, you’re letting all the cold air in,” Dorian said, grabbing at the blankets. “Get back here. She wasn’t upset with you.”

“Not the point,” Bull said, rubbing at the base of a horn. “I wanted to help her relax, not stress her out more. If she’s worrying about me, I owe her an apology.”

“I’m not sure any force in the world could stop Cadash from worrying,” Dorian said. “Will you come _back_ here. Anyway, I believe Sera’s relaxing her just fine. At all hours.”

“Well, that’s something,” Bull said, finally settling back into the bed. “I’m glad for that.”

“She was wrong, then,” Dorian hazarded. “You weren’t getting… fond of her.”

“Does it matter?” Bull asked. “It’s not what she wanted. I’m glad she has something that’s good for her.” He nuzzled Dorian’s hair. “What’s with the curiosity? You jealous?”

“Should I be?” Dorian asked, surprised by the roughness of it.

“Of her? Nah. It was a while ago, I mend easy.” He shrugged, resettling himself on the mattress. “Anyway, I’m – I grew up Qunari. We don’t sleep with our friends anyway. She wants to stop being a friend I sleep with, back to normal. I got a little fluttery for a while, she didn’t, that goes back to normal too.” He drops a kiss to Dorian’s head. “Nothing you need to be jealous about, I promise. I’m not gonna shout the wrong name or anything.”

“Given I’m twice her size, half her weight, and lack tits, that wasn’t really a concern.”

“You know what I mean.” Bull curled around him, tugging Dorian against his chest. “You’re not a substitute for anyone, Dorian. That’s all I’m trying to say.”

“So, what – you were fond of her – fluttery, you said?” _Fluttery._ Dorian flattened his hand against the Bull’s chest: solid, sturdy muscle. Moving his mass at all (say, when he was asleep and crushing Dorian’s ribs) was always an act involving careful leverage; fluttering did not belong in the image. “And you never intended to say anything, to tell her – what possible obstacle could have existed –”

“Hey. Dorian.” Bull tugged at his hair, pulling his head back. “This about Cadash, really?”

“No, this is about the exact weight of the nug we had for dinner, who _else_ would it be about?” Dorian was halfway to kicking himself out of the blankets by this time.

“All right, all right, it’s about Cadash,” Bull said, loosening his grip on Dorian’s hair. He flattened his hands against the mattress, carefully still. “Well, the biggest obstacle is that she didn’t want that from me. That ends the conversation pretty well right there. I offered to screw in the first place because I thought I could help her out with some things going on in her head. I wasn’t going to turn around and make her take care of my feelings.”

“Hrmph.” Dorian shivered, goosebumps rising in the cold of Bull’s ridiculously drafty room, and burrowed back under the blankets. “Well. Aren’t you self-sacrificing.”

“Mm.” Bull resettled his hands on Dorian’s back. “You know, I asked Krem a few things about Tevinter the other day.”

“The evils of the Magisterium and their relatives, I suppose,” Dorian muttered.

“ I asked him how Tevinter deals with things like this. Like us. It’s an old Ben-Hassrath technique, you know. Asking people.”

“Oh, how my homeland trembles in fear of the Qunari,” Dorian said, rubbing his foot along Bull’s calf.

“Fear, huh?” The end of it got lost in a yawn. “Maybe hold off until the morning, though. You deserve –” he yawned again – “my full attention.”

“At the very least,” Dorian said. Bull hummed, stroking Dorian’s back, and Dorian sighed.

“Our dear herald,” he said, “seemed to think I ought to be careful not to hurt you. She imagined me callously toying with your affections.”

“I’m pretty tough,” Bull said, curling his fingers through the hair at the nape of Dorian’s neck. “You don’t need to worry about me.”

“Good to know what significance I hold,” Dorian said, and bit his lip. “No, I’m sorry. That was unworthy of me.”

 “Dorian…” Bull sighed, easing himself back to a sitting position. “Look. My door’s always open to you. It’ll stay that way. You want more, you let me know.”

“Who said anything about me wanting anything at all?”

“ _Dorian._ ” Bull caught at his chin, tilting his face up to meet Bull’s lopsided, stupidly gentle gaze. “Are you hoping I’ll say I want you, or are you hoping I won’t?”

“I want the truth,” Dorian said, pulling away. “I assure you, I can handle rejecting some overmuscled brute!”

“Yeah, but you like my muscles,” Bull said, letting his hand fall. “Look. I think you’re a good man. I like what we’re doing together. I think you’ve got plenty to worry about right now without adding me to the list. I’d be happy to take anything you want to give me. It doesn’t need to be any more than it is.”

“Well, I _want_ it to be more than it is, and I feel very much as if you’re trying to talk me out of it!” Dorian stopped, face burning. “Look. I’ll – where are my trousers –”

“Dorian.” Bull touched two fingers to the back of his hand – stilling, unconfining. “I’m not trying to talk you out of anything.”

“Well, then, what is it you _are_ doing?” Dorian snapped, and sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Being stupidly, pointlessly noble, I suppose. Making sure the door is propped open. Making _me_ put it all out there, so you don’t have to –”

“Is it so bad to want to you to be sure?” Bull asked. “To want to know that you’re here because you want to be, not because I pushed you into anything?”

“As if you could push me into anything,” Dorian sniffed. “I’m perfectly capable of telling you _no._ Ask without fear.”

Bull met his eyes. “Okay,” he said, and turned Dorian’s hand over, holding it between his own. “You want me to ask? I want you to stay. I want to tie a pattern of cords around your waist and know that they’re there like a promise all day. I want to leave love-bites on your neck so high those robes of yours can’t cover it. I want you not to dive for the nearest bush when Cole does his creepy mind-reading thing at us.”

“You can’t have that last one,” Dorian said. “It’s unsettling and Sera leers at me.”

“All right,” Bull said, tracing Dorian’s knuckles with his thumb. “I can deal with that.”

“The rest, however…” Dorian coughed. “The rest is certainly a… possibility. I’d want a bit more information about this cord idea of yours.”

Bull shrugged, the corner of his mouth tugging up, and Dorian sighed. “That means yes, Bull,” he said. “I’ll stay.”

The half-smile turned into a grin, and Bull looped his arms over Dorian’s shoulders, pulling him down. “You couldn’t have brought this up before round two?” he asked, yawning again. “If I were a few years younger… I’ll make it all up to you in the morning.”

“I expect your best,” Dorian said, burrowing into the circle of the Bull’s arms. “Entirely. You’ve certainly got mine.”

“Understood,” Bull said, and kissed his forehead. “Kadan.”

“Kadan?”

“Heart.” Bull brushed the backs of his fingers across Dorian’s cheek. “Gonna call you that the whole time we fuck in the morning. Now go to sleep.”  


End file.
